Kathrine Frich
The two envoys are cutting the US intelligence community and th State Department out of the loop.
When peace talks happen behind closed doors, the biggest fights often break out among allies.
Negotiators usually say they want a fast end to the bloodshed, yet the price of a deal can split a country’s leaders wide open.
Right now, a bitter fight over foreign policy is erupting in Washington.
Working for Moscow
Three senior Democratic lawmakers have accused President Donald Trump and his top negotiators of taking Russia’s side over American interests, according to the Kyiv Post and Ziare.com.
Representatives Gregory Meeks and Adam Smith joined Senator Jack Reed in a sharp joint statement targeting US special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff ahead of their Thursday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
The congressmen claimed the two envoys are cutting the US intelligence community and th State Department out of the loop while echoing Moscow’s wishes on pulling back from Eastern Europe. They warned that this approach puts NATO at risk.
“Their Trumpian transactional approach, in which they treat a nation’s struggle for survival like a real estate transaction, threatens global stability,” the lawmakers said, as quoted by the Kyiv Post. “They and Trump are working for Putin, Three US congressmen slam Trump’s Russia envoys for betraying ‘the American people’
Giving up land
At the heart of the dispute is the eastern region of Donbas. According to the Democratic statement, Kushner and Witkoff have repeatedly pushed Kyiv to hand over its heavily guarded defensive lines there, which currently block Russian troops from advancing further west.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed back against that exact demand during a Wednesday press briefing in Dublin, where the US envoys are due to meet him after leaving Moscow.
“The American side very often raises the topic of Donbas, part of our Ukrainian land,” Zelensky said. “They believe that in order to end this war, we must leave our territory. It is impossible to talk like that to us, an independent and sovereign country.”
Zelensky doubted Moscow would give real answers to earlier proposals from talks in Abu Dhabi, adding that Ukraine needs firm US security guarantees rather than Russian promises.
Back in Washington, Meeks, Smith, and Reed insisted that easing pressure on the Kremlin will backfire. “Congress and the American people also understand that Putin only responds to force,” they stated.
